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White Rabbit (song)
"White Rabbit" is a song written by Grace Slick, and recorded by Jefferson Airplane for their 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow. It was released as a single and became the band's second top ten success, peaking at #81 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was ranked #478 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time,2 #87 on Rate Your Music's Top Singles of All Time,3 and appears on The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. The name White Rabbit has also been described as a nickname for counterculture era figure Owsley Stanley.4 Contents hide * 1 History * 2 Lyrics and composition * 3 Chart run * 4 Covers * 5 Sampled * 6 In media * 7 References * 8 External links Historyedit “White Rabbit” was written and performed by Grace Slick while she was still with The Great Society. When that band broke up in 1966, Slick was invited to join Jefferson Airplane to replace their departed female singer Signe Toly Anderson, who left the band with the birth of her child. The first album Slick recorded with Jefferson Airplane was Surrealistic Pillow, and Slick provided two songs from her previous group: her own “White Rabbit” and “Somebody to Love”, written by her brother-in-law Darby Slickand recorded under the title "Someone to Love" by The Great Society.5 Both songs became top ten hits6 for Jefferson Airplane and have ever since been associated with that band.7 Lyrics and compositionedit 1967 trade ad for the single. One of Grace Slick's earliest songs, written during either late 1965 or early 1966, utilizes imagery found in the fantasy works of Lewis Carroll: 1865's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass, such as changing size after taking pills or drinking an unknown liquid. Slick had stated the composition was intended to be a slap to parents who would read their children such novels, and then wonder why their children would later use drugs.8 Characters Slick referenced include Alice, the hookah-smoking caterpillar, the White Knight, the Red Queen, and the Dormouse.9 For Slick and others in the 1960s, drugs were a part of mind-expanding and social experimentation. With its enigmatic lyrics, "White Rabbit" became one of the first songs to sneak drug references past censors on the radio. Even Marty Balin, Slick's eventual rival in Jefferson Airplane, regarded the song as a "masterpiece". In interviews, Slick has related that Alice in Wonderland was often read to her as a child, and remained a vivid memory well into her adulthood.2 In an interview with The Wall Street Journal Slick mentioned that in addition to Alice in Wonderland her other inspiration for the song was "the bolero used by Miles Davis and Gil Evans on their 1960 album Sketches of Spain."10 The song is essentially one long crescendo similar to that of Ravel's famous Boléro. The music combined with the song's lyrics strongly suggests the sensory distortions experienced with hallucinogens, and the song was later used in pop culture to imply or accompany just such a state.11 Chart runedit Cashbox12 (11 weeks): 59, 45, 23, 14, 12, 11, 8, 6, 7, 22, 41 Coversedit The song was covered in the following years: * 1967 – by the jazz guitarist Gábor Szabó and The California Dreamers * 1971 – by the jazz guitarist George Benson * 1980 – by the punk band The Last Words * 1980 – by the punk / gothic rock band The Damned * 1981 – by the post punk band The Mo-Dettes in a Peel Session * 1985 – by the punk band The Zarkons (Formerly known as The Alley Cats) * 1987 – by the heavy metal band Sanctuary * 1987 – by the heavy metal band Lizzy Borden * 1987 – by the synth-pop band Act * 1987 – by the Avant–garde jazz classical band Durutti Column * 1989 – by the hardcore punk band Slapshot * 1989 – by the comedy rock band The Frogs * 1995 – by The Murmurs (MCA Records) * 1995 – by Mephisto Walz * 1996 – by the Icelandic singer-songwriter Emilíana Torrini, later used in the soundtrack for 2011 film Sucker Punch * 1996 – by the Norwegian heavy metal band In the Woods... for their White Rabbit EP and later (2000) included in their Three Times Seven on a Pilgrimage album * 1998 – by June Tabor on album On Air * 1998 – by Ed & Denyze Alleyne-Johnson * 1999 – by the Cincinnati-based Gothic/Garage Rock band Stop the Car for their final album Crash, after having featured the song regularly in their live set lists since the 1980s * 2001 – by the industrial band Collide.13 A remix version appears in the ending credits of the 2007 film, Resident Evil: Extinction * 2002 – by Sleater-Kinney at the Majestic Theater in Detroit, Michigan * 2002 – by Enon for Don't Know When I'll Be Back Again VVA Benefit Compilation * 2003 – by the performance art / experimental rock group Blue Man Group with vocals by Esthero14 * 2003 – by June Tabor and the Oysterband * 2004 – by My Morning Jacket * 2005 – by Shakespears Sister for The Best of Shakespears Sister, and later Songs from the Red Room * 2005 – by the Austin Lounge Lizards * 2006 – remixed by the psychedelic trance act Fuzzion as Little Girl on the album Black Magic.15 * 2006 – by the Brechtian punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls at the Bonnaroo Music Festival * 2006 – by The Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps in their show Volume 2: Through the Looking Glass * 2006 – by Lana Lane for Gemini album.16 * 2007 – by Stan Ridgway as an encore song during his summer tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of Wall of Voodoo's album Call of the West. * 2007 – by Patti Smith on her cover album Twelve. * 2007 – by The Vincent Black Shadow at the Warped Tour, later recorded in the studio for the 2008 EP "Head In A Box" * 2007 – by Trinidad & Tobago rock band, Rango Tango. * 2007 – by The Crüxshadows on their Birthday EP. * 2008 – by The Spectacles at the Bowery Ballroom * 2008 – by Alternative band The Smashing Pumpkins as a tease in Heavy Metal Machine. * 2009 – by Russian rock-musician Nike Borzov in the soundtrack17 for his audio-book "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" (Russian translation of Hunter S. Thompson's novel) as "Black Rabbit" and "Funky Rabbit". * 2010 – by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals on the Alice in Wonderland soundtrack "Almost Alice".18 * 2010—by The Indecent on their debut album Her Screwed Up Head. * 2011 – by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, performing live on the NPR show "Fresh Air"19 * 2011 – by Australian group Floating Me, as a part of their live sets (fans voted on the band's Facebook page for a song for them to cover). * 2011 – by Emilíana Torrini on the soundtrack Sucker Punch20 * 2012 – by Ladyhawke for Triple J's Like a Version segment. Later included on the compilation album. * 2013 – by British alternative band The Danse Society for their "Scarey Tales" album * 2013 – by Mayssa Karaa, in Arabic. Recorded for the soundtrack of American Hustle Samplededit * "Collie Trippz" by DJ Marky and S.P.Y * "Do Whatcha Gotta" by Nice & Smooth21 * "Homework" by The Dust Brothers * "Eye Examination" by Del tha Funkee Homosapien * "Needful Things" by Psycho Realm * "Minute By Minute" by Girl Talk * "Rabbit Hole" by Living Legends on the 2001 album, Almost Famous * "Overload" by Sugababes * "El Camino" by Ween In mediaedit "White Rabbit" has been used in numerous films and television shows.22 * A line in the song, Go Ask Alice, was used as the title of a 1971 book about drug addiction by Beatrice Sparks that was adapted two years later into an ABC Movie of the Week. Category:1967 singles